At the start of bestseller Lescroart’s entertaining 18th thriller featuring San Francisco DA Dismas Hardy (after 2013’s The Ophelia Cut), Hardy learns that Katie Chase, wife of sheriff’s deputy Hal Chase, has gone missing. The cops question Hal, who’s later arrested after the discovery of Katie’s body. Hardy agrees to help Hal, and puts newly retired friend Abe Glitsky, once head of homicide in the SFPD, on the case. When Glitsky asks reporter Jeff Elliot for some background on Hal, he gets an earful about inmate deaths at the city jail under the direction of Sheriff Burt Cushing. Glitsky’s best hope is finding the killer, or at least a viable suspect, one of whom could be Patti Orosco, Hal’s rich and beautiful onetime lover, or the unknown man Katie had an affair with. Glitsky shakes the rust off his investigative skills as he chases down every lead. The action builds to a surprising and surprisingly cynical conclusion. Author tour. Agent: Barney Karpfinger, Karpfinger Agency. (May)